


Within Him

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Canon-Typical Violence, Creepy Snoke (Star Wars), Dark, Evil Snoke, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kylo Ren Angst, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, M/M, POV Kylo Ren, POV Poe Dameron, Past Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Past Torture, Prisoner Poe Dameron, Snoke Being a Dick
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-05 23:38:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15874047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Poe Dameron knows Kylo Ren’s identity before he goes to Jakku. That knowledge could change everything.





	1. Tuanul

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It was long after Lor San Tekka had handed Poe Dameron the last piece of the map that he said, “That isn’t all you came for, is it?”

Poe swallowed. “Lor,” he said, “Have you found any trace, at all, of Ben?” 

He briefly considered correcting himself, calling Ben by the name he went by now, Kylo Ren, but he couldn’t. He doubted that he ever could, actually. The idea that there was no retrieving Ben...it was too horrifying to even imagine. 

Lor San Tekka looked at him with the utmost compassion. “You wish to save him, don’t you?”

Slowly, Poe nodded. 

Lor sighed. “I don’t think that Ren is beyond saving. The First Order rose from the Dark Side. He did not. And there may yet be pinpoints of light, of reason, in him. Even Darth Vader was not beyond redemption.”

Poe bit his lip. He could only hope. Then again, why wouldn’t Ben be able to be saved? Even the General, when she had told him...she’d confided to him in private that she still had hope. And of course she did. After all, Ben was her son. 

BB-8 wheeled into the tent just then, frantically beeping. 

“What is it, buddy?” Poe said, squatting down beside him, and his blood chilled when he heard the next thing BB-8 beeped out. 

Stormtroopers. 

The First Order had found them. He turned to Lor San Tekka. “The First Order’s found us.”

Lor San Tekka closed his eyes. Poe couldn’t blame him. After all, he knew what exactly it meant when the First Order showed up. 

Destruction surely followed. 

He turned to BB-8. “BB, buddy, you need to get out of here. You take this; it’s safer with you than it is with me.”

BB-8 beeped anxiously. 

“I’ll come back for you,” Poe said. “Just get out of here; save the map. Save yourself.”

BB-8 beeped. Poe gave him the map, and BB-8 wheeled away in that moment. 

Poe could only hope that BB-8 would make it. Then again, he supposed that he would. After all, BB-8 was a resourceful little droid. 

Poe and Tekka headed out in that moment, towards the battle site. Outside, it was chaos, stormtroopers cornering civilians, houses on Tuanul aflame. 

Poe turned towards Tekka. “You hide. I’ll hold them off.”

He fired at the stormtroopers. Killing never really got easier, but honestly, as long as he protected the village, that would be enough. He fired, and it was then that he felt a rustling of wind on the back of his neck, and looked up. 

A familiar shuttle. Poe’s chest clenched; it was Kylo Ren’s shuttle. Ben’s shuttle.

Ben was here. 

Poe knew that shuttle far too well, and he could not help but be afraid. Not of Kylo, but what he would do to him. Because Poe doubted he could ever really hurt Ben — unless he had to. 

Stormtroopers grabbed his arms and led him towards Kylo Ren. He forced himself to meet Kylo’s eyes — or at least facsimiles for eyes. Cold, black, dead things, nothing like the eyes that were so expressive, so full of life. It was like Kylo Ren, like Ben, was imprisoned behind some sort of durasteel jail.

The stormtroopers forced him to his knees just then, and Poe winced as his knees came in contact with the ground. He looked up at Kylo even as the latter squatted down beside him, getting exactly on his level, meeting his eyes. 

Silence. Poe wished he knew what to say. Did he make a joke? Poe’s usual defense mechanism was making jokes whenever things got too much (or to poke holes in people who really needed it) but here, kneeling before Ben Solo, now Kylo Ren, Poe didn’t know what to say. 

“So who talks first?” Poe said. “You talk first, I talk first?”

”Where is the map?” Even Ben’s voice didn’t sound right; without the mask, it sounded soft and musical and clear. This...this just sounded strange. Poe didn’t know what to make of it, really. 

“It’s just hard to understand you, with the — ’’

“Search him.”

” — apparatus.” 

The stormtroopers searched him. Nothing. When they said as much to Ren, he said, “Put him onboard.”

It was being escorted away that Poe heard Captain Phasma say, “Sir. The villagers, and Tekka?”

”Kill the villagers. All of them. And bring Tekka aboard my ship.”

Phasma obliged. “On my command,” she said to her troops, “Fire.”

Any sort of attempt at a defense mechanism melted away for Poe. ”No.” he said. “No!” 

Poe struggled, stars willing, against the grips of the stormtroopers holding him back. He struggled, dug in his feet to try and get the stormtroopers to stop, cried out Ben’s name...

...and Kylo Ren turned in Poe’s direction. Poe froze. The troopers froze. And for a moment, it was like their eyes met, brown against cold and dead, and Poe’s breath hitched. 

There was something cold about the way that Ren’s eyes just looked at him. Cold and dead, and rigid. You will regret this, that stare said without words.

Then Poe was escorted back into the shuttle. The ride to the Finalizer was an uneasy one, and Poe wondered, after all this time, if it was at all possible to save Ben — save Kylo — from himself. 

 


	2. Taunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren meets with Snoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It was in the privacy of his own quarters, long after his troops had secured Poe in his cell, that Kylo Ren met with Snoke. Snoke’s hologram practically filled the room, making even Kylo Ren (who was quite the tall man in his own right) feel almost small in comparison. 

“Well, my apprentice,” Snoke rumbled, “You found the last piece of the map?”

”No, Supreme Leader. But we will find the information.”

”Of course you will. You know full well what you have to do.”

Kylo thought about it, and he could not help but feel a sick sort of feeling in his stomach. Poe was the enemy, yes, but at the same time, he had never truly taken pleasure in interrogating another. He wasn’t a sadist. There were others who would take pleasure in such things, but Kylo Ren would not count himself as one of them. 

And Poe...

Poe was such a bright presence; even the idea of putting out his light, even for the sake of finding the map, was more than Kylo Ren could bear. 

“Are there no alternatives?” Kylo said. 

“You protest?” Snoke said. “Is it still true love, Kylo Ren?”

Kylo could feel his cheeks becoming heated with humiliation as he looked away from Snoke. He could still remember how Snoke had taunted him even as he had forcibly extracted memories from Kylo’s mind — from Ben’s mind. _Was it true love?_  And maybe the fact that it was had stung the most. 

True love. Two of the cruelest words in Basic. Reminding Kylo too well of the man he’d left behind. 

“He means nothing to me,” Kylo said, weakly. 

“So you say. We shall see.”

Snoke’s hologram vanished, and Kylo Ren was left alone in the room. He means nothing to me, he’d said, and yet in that moment his heart was beating for Poe, and Poe alone. 

Still, he had to push it aside. He couldn’t help but feel things like that crop up when he tried to push them aside, but he could at least do it again and again until it was completely crushed. 

He got up, and headed towards the interrogation chamber where Poe was being kept. It was time for him to shove these feelings aside and do what needed to be done. 


End file.
